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National Tobacco Education Campaign

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office
on Smoking and Health (OSH) launched a groundbreaking campaign on March 15, 2012, to raise awareness of
the human suffering caused by smoking and to encourage smokers to quit. The
campaign is calledTips From Former Smokersand it featured real
people who have experienced a variety of illnesses stemming from tobacco use,
including cancer, heart attack, stroke, asthma, and Buerger’s disease. The ads
not only showed the toll that these smoking-related illnesses have taken on
these individuals’ lives, but they also provided encouragement to quit smoking
and information on how to access free help.

The campaign ads, which began airing on March 19th and ran nationally for
12 weeks, included television, radio, billboard, magazine, newspaper, theater,
and online placements. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other channels helped spread
the campaign's messages more broadly, particularly among younger audiences.

The primary goals of the campaign were to:

Encourage smokers to quit and make available
help for those who want it, including calling 1-800-QUITNOW or visiting www.smokefree.gov for
free help

Build public awareness of the immediate health
damage caused by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke

Encourage smokers not to smoke around others and
nonsmokers to protect themselves and their families from exposure to secondhand
smoke

IMPACT
OF THE CAMPAIGN: The
NTEC generated nearly 200,000 additional calls to state quitlines through
1-800-QUIT-NOW and over 400,000 unique visitors to www.smokefree.gov. CDC expects that the
Campaign will surpass its goal of 500,000 quit attempts and 50,000 successful
longterm quits. CDC plans to release a formal evaluation of the Campaign later
this year. Please find the press release from June 14 here. To access the MMWR article titled Increases in Quitline Calls and Smoking Cessation Website Visitors During a National Tobacco Education Campaign — March 19–June 10, 2012 please click here (page 667).

Archived materials from the campaign:

What Are the Campaign Goals?

Encourage smokers to
quit and make available help for those who want it, including calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW or
visiting www.smokefree.govfor free help

Build public awareness
of the immediate health damage caused by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke

Encourage smokers not
to smoke around others and nonsmokers to protect themselves and their families from exposure
to secondhand smoke

Who Did the Campaign Try to Reach?

The primary audience
is adult smokers ages 18 through 54.

Secondary audiences
include parents, family members, and adolescents.

Spanish-language
materials (TV, radio, and print) have been developed to reach Spanish-speaking Hispanics/Latinos.

What Are the Key Messages of the Campaign?

Smoking causes
immediate damage to your body, which can lead to long-term suffering.

Paid advertising and
public service announcements (PSAs) were placed in/on television, radio, print
(magazines), newspapers, out-of-home (billboards, bus shelters), in-theater,
and online through digital video, search, and mobile channels. Additional
information and resources were made available to the public through the
Internet, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

How Long Did the Campaign Run?

The paid portion of the
campaign began on March 19th and ran for 12 weeks. The PSAs, including an
advertisement that specifically promotes quitting, ran a bit longer.

What Resources Were Included on the
Ads?

Most of the ads were tagged with the national quitline number (1-800-QUIT-NOW)
and/or www.smokefree.gov. The digital ads, including digital video, are
included on the CDC campaign Web site www.cdc.gov/quitting/tips.